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Arguing that Kentucky was trying to lure Abercrombie & Fitch’s expanding e-commerce
operations away from New Albany, the state of Ohio is providing $350,000 to help give the retail
company’s campus a new access road.

The company, which had $4.1 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2013, has said it plans to create
112 full-time jobs through an investment in its distribution facility on the north side of Smith’s
Mill Road. The campus has nearly 1,800 jobs that will remain.

As part of the project, the company acquired property and started going through the city’s
annexation and rezoning process, said Jennifer Chrysler, New Albany’s director of community
development. The state funding, $250,000 of which was approved yesterday by the state Controlling
Board, will go to the city for the reconstruction of Evans Road. Thanks to the new property
purchase, the reconstruction of that road will connect Abercrombie’s campus to Central College
Road.

Officials said the road is too small to handle much traffic.

“If this expansion continues to grow, they are going to need to expand their parking and be able
to bring their employees into the campus in a different way,” Chrysler said.

Project funding was a joint effort between the state Development Services Agency and
JobsOhio.

State Rep. Chris Redfern of Port Clinton, a Controlling Board member and chairman of the Ohio
Democratic Party, was skeptical of the argument that the money was needed to keep the facility from
going to Kentucky. He said he talked to some Franklin County elected officials, and none was aware
of the situation, and he was unable to find reports from Kentucky that the Bluegrass State was
trying to lure the operation.

Redfern also pressed representatives of the Department Services Agency to provide the scoring
system used to determine which projects are funded and which are not.

John Mahaney, the agency’s legislative liaison, said he would get back to Redfern, but he said
later he is unsure whether the scoring is proprietary. “I have to check on what we’re allowed to
release.”

A number of Midwestern states have good transportation access, Chrysler said, and this is not a
corporate-office expansion, a situation in which it might make less sense to relocate.

“These distribution facilities can grow anywhere,” she said. “Anytime when you’re working in the
logistics industry, it’s a very big threat that companies can move to other locations. I believe it
was very real.”